Castle of Silence
by Black Sword
Summary: Within Frigidia's wastes lies Laya's stronghold. Within the walls of the Castle of Silence exist questions and answers.
1. Chapter 1

"She's here," they murmured. "She's here!"

She sighed as she listened to the people of the crowd whisper to each other on this sunny spring day. People had been staring at her all of her life, which was why she had kept the hood of her borrowed cloak up until they reached Mystoke. They would be staring at her even more now, with her excess energy not yet under complete control and manifested around her as an aura of light. Ice pellets crunched underfoot as she walked the main street toward the fortress that had been her sister's stronghold. _Mine now, I suppose._

The road was lined with statues that depicted her big sister in many different roles. Here was one where Laya the archwizardess used her great magic. Next was one where Laya the archer aimed for a target. Then there was one where Laya the ruler dispensed justice. She stopped and stared at the next statue. A painful lump rose in her throat.

The statue depicted a simple scene. Her big sister was there, her usually proud and severe features soft, her hair free from its restraining braid as she stroked the long tresses of a little girl who clutched her leg and smiled up at her. Laya as mother.

Laya as _her _mother.

Except now she was an orphan.

Tears welled up in her eyes as she felt her heart ripped out of her chest yet again. She closed her eyes and took a silent, shuddering breath to suppress the nameless things that flooded her mind. She needed to stay functional until she understood. The dam could break afterward.

Her effort did not work as pain swelled within her chest. With no other recourse, she once again took sanctuary in _musubi_.

Her mind emptied as she made the world one. It was the best way to explain the concept archers used to hit the target. Action and result were the same; she was the arrow and the arrow had already hit. Even if she was blinded, everything was within the perception of her mind. She had joined past and future together at the same point.

She sealed her emotions into an arrow and fired them into the sky. They would return, but for now, the arrow that was her self had another target to hit before she could be dragged down.

The truth was inside the Castle of Silence. She could feel it. The truth behind why her sister had sealed her inside a cryogenic chamber for a millennium. The truth behind the knight of the black sword.

The truth her sister had seen in her visions of the future.

She turned from the statue and determinedly walked forward. She rejected their emotional impact, especially as the face of the sculptures changed from her sister's to her own. Ahead of her, a handful of graybeards in thick robes waited patiently in front of the gates to the fortress.

"Hail," said one of them. "We recognize your face, but still we must ask. Are you the little sister of Laya?"

There could be only one Laya, but there was little point in correcting them right now. "I am."

Joy transformed his face. The whiskers of his beard quivered in happiness. "At last! We have waited centuries for Laya's kin to reach Mystoke, the Castle of Silence."

"What awaits me within?"

The graybeard blinked in surprise at her impatient question, his joy diminished as fear that he might be disappointing the heir to his goddess grew within him. "Your pardon, Holy One. You will be tested within the castle gates. If you pass the tests, Laya's Pendant is yours. All the doors to her palace will open to you."

"Laya's Pendant?" she asked sharply. Her sister had left her the _tikal_, the mark of the Laya, and the bow, the inheritance of the Laya. A pendant had never been part of the legacy.

"Laya's Pendant is the treasure of the Castle of Silence. Use Laya's Pendant to hear Laya's final words. That is the message passed down the generations."

Her sister's final words? The shock rocked her to her core. It took all of her concentration to continue to wear her sister's persona. "Thank you, loyal ones, who have kept watch over my sister's legacy," she said, her voice audible to everyone. "You have my eternal gratitude, as well as that of my sister. May the Goddess take you into her bosom and may She shelter and protect you as you have sheltered and protected me."

The crowd fell silent as they knelt in the snow, their heads bowed to receive her blessing. Without another word, she advanced on the castle gate, her eyes filled with the Laya's red glyph on a field of white. It looked like it had been closed a thousand years ago and never opened again; even so, the technology of old Palm was good for centuries of continuous operation.

She leaned in close to the panel beside the gate and looked through the eyepiece. It might as well be the day after she had been sealed so far as the machinery was concerned. The gate slowly went up in obedience to her status as the mistress of the castle.

"Do you want us to go with you?" Mieu asked.

Her sister would have devised tests only she could survive. Their nature would be magical, something neither machines nor mundanes could hope to defeat. By that same token, she knew how powerful her sister had been. She was afraid of what those tests could be, but the Laya could not admit to fear. "Do as you will," she answered.

"Then we'll go with you," Nial said.

She ignored him. She was still angry with him over his constant nagging. She understood that he worried for the well-being of his people. She respected and even liked him the better for it. Even so, her sister would not have forced her to sleep for a thousand years over something as cosmically _minor _as putting a leash on Lune. She needed to know what Laya needed from her before she could do anything else.

It was her duty to her sister.

"Remember the name of this castle," she told Mieu. "Keep your silence."

Resolute, she entered the castle grounds. One of the towers loomed straight ahead, but she needed only a glance to know it was tightly shut. She turned from the path and headed toward the southeast corner of the castle. In a sheltered, isolated alcove of the gardens, there was a hidden way out of —or in this case, _into_— the underground passages that connected the seven towers.

The layout of the castle was based on magic symbols. The towers were laid out as a hexagram, with one at each corner and the last in the middle as the focal point, a representation of the union of the two opposite forces at work within the universe. Appropriately, the central tower housed everything of importance to her sister. The pendant they were searching for was probably there. To get to the central tower, one had to traverse the underground area designed in a complicated spiral, a crude representation of the nature of infinity.

As they made their way through the midget evergreens liberally dusted with snow, she worried about the tests. Her sister had been a prodigy, the sort born once every thousand years. Although her sister had taught her everything, she knew she did not have the same breadth and width of talent. It was possible her sister had created tests that were too much for her to handle.

Her eyes found what they searched for, the slight wavering of light that to trained eyes betrayed the site of an illusion. The excess energy of her aura was enough to dispel the ancient ward and reveal the steps into the lower levels. She half-closed her eyes as she tried to sense any hidden traps, but she did not find any.

_Laya expected me. The secret passage is unlocked._

Her heart began to beat faster with every step she descended into the darkness. The tunnels were pitch black, with neither normal nor emergency lighting in operation, but the glow of her aura pushed back the shadows enough to see. The air within was sharp and clean, free of the staleness of air that had been bottled up and left to decompose.

Silence reigned as she led the way through the subterranean labyrinth, her temporary escorts a safe distance behind her. She could not spare them any thought, however; she was too focused on searching for the flicker of energy that would warn her of—

"Warla!"

An orange-tinged barrier spread out in the air ahead of her as bolts of flame shot forth from the darkness. Fire exploded against the magical shield as she sensed the familiar touch of her sister's power. Had she been careless, it would have been the end of her.

Exclamations of surprise sounded behind her. Before she could scold them for it, a powerful voice she had known since her cradle boomed within the passage. The reverberation shook her very bones as the familiar voice asked, "Who was the first of us?"

_So that's it._

Magic and holy lore, those were the nature of Laya's tests. The wards her sister had created would overwhelm machines or mundanes, no matter what Techniques or technologies they used. Now that the test was active, she could sense the magic furnace that would keep the ward active for however long it took to remove intruders. In order to disarm the wards, she would have to use hidden, sacred knowledge: the names of her predecessors as Laya. "Lalita!"

The fire storm ceased. She breathed a sigh of relief before she rounded on her escorts. Without a word, she went up to Nial as his lips parted to speak and slapped her hand over his mouth. She raised the pointer finger of her free hand and put it to her own mouth in the universal gesture for silence. She trusted he had gotten the point when he averted his eyes from hers. She glared at Ryan and Mieu for good measure before she turned her back on them and walked forward.

Aware that her anger would make it harder to detect her sister's tests, she once again made the world one. The arrow of her anger was sent ahead into the murk. She sent her gratitude for being taught _musubi _on a different arrow bound to wherever her sister's soul rested.

Their silent progress was swift, but so was the appearance of the next test. Two powerful waves of holy energy surged toward her even as she raised her hand to break the attack. She clutched her fists as she bent the energy into her body and absorbed it. Her body felt a little irritated, but otherwise, she was unharmed.

Ahead of her, two women shone in the darkness, their beautiful faces framed by long purple hair. They wore no clothing, exposing their voluptuous figures for all to see. Their physical perfection ended at their knees, as they lacked shins and feet.

_Acacia? Why did she summon holy spirits to defend this place...?_

She continued to absorb the unceasing holy attacks. That familiar voice boomed out her next question. "Who died giving birth to the first?"

The true name of the first avatar of the Great Goddess, the one who had linked her female line to the origin of creation, had been forgotten by all but Lutz, but she knew the name recorded in lore. "Ladali!"

Both Acacia ceased their attacks. They faded from sight, but her Esper senses told her the magic furnace had not ceased and the spirits had not dissipated. They would remain within the walls of the Castle of Silence as its guards until either they or the castle were destroyed.

However, there was the problem of all the energy she had gained from breaking the spirits' attacks. She could not keep it within herself for long. She focused her mind and channeled it through her feet and into the ground. The floor glowed for a while before the energy dissipated.

They were halfway through the spiral when she sensed the activation of the third magic furnace. Balls of red fire began to form in midair. Faces formed within the flame, their expressions twisted into distorted sneers as their hideous teeth gnashed silently.

_Elemental creation too? At least they're just common Fire elementals. It would be trouble if they were blue._

Before the Fires could spit out their Foi Techniques or rush across to explode on contact, her right hand slashed the air in front of her. "Hewn!"

Invisible spirals formed in front of each Fire. Powerful spirals of wind tore the elementals apart, with nothing more to mark their presence then the uncomfortable sensation of heat. She repeated the spell, destroying each ball of flame before it could coalesce into its own entity, biding her time until the next question was asked.

It was not long in coming. "Who came before you?"

The name she had never been allowed to use, even in private; she could only use it now because her sister was dead. She said it gently, with all the reverence it deserved. "Kalika."

The magic furnace powered down. The elementals ceased to appear. Melancholy filled her as agony began to form in her chest. With difficulty, she made the world one again. Just a little longer. She only had to last a little longer. Then she would take off her sister's persona and feel. She just had to endure a little longer.

Only a fifth of the spiral was left when she saw the nature of the fourth test. Three empty suits of plate armor stood in the middle of the hall. Each was armed with two heavy double-edged battle axes. The moment she stepped into the ward, the magic furnace would activate and animate them as golems. Laya had probably enchanted the armor to be magic resistant just to make it hard.

Even so, it wasn't like she had a choice. As she expected, her arrival woke the golems from their long slumber. Their metal plates groaned as the lifeless puppets stirred. False life gave them the power to move. The trio of armors simultaneously took their first shaky step forward, the order to destroy any intruders the only will they had ever or would ever possess.

"Who came before me?"

It was a surprise question, since she had never expected to be asked the name of the mother she had never known. "Amika."

Energy ceased to flow into the armors, but they did not halt. They had absorbed enough power to operate on their own for a time, which meant she was supposed to stop them. As she had never had any talent for animating or deadening golems, something Laya well knew, that meant she was supposed to destroy them. She splayed her fingers and extended her hands toward the slow, menacing enemies. "Legeon!"

Beyond the level the eye could see, electricity filled the air and superheated the atoms that were the foundation of the universe. Even as her spell broke the bond of matter, powerful bursts of energy exploded with enough force to annihilate an army of thousands within seconds.

The use of the most powerful Esper magic without proper control would easily bring the entire castle down on her head, but she successfully managed to limit the area of effect. The walls of the passageway were unharmed. However, not even scrap was left to testify to the existence of the golems.

With so little ground to cover before the secret entrance to the central tower, she had thought the golem test had been the last. She was surprised when she saw a glow ahead of her, one she soon recognized as her own. _My reflection? No, it's a mirror wall..._

She silently berated herself for her carelessness. She should have sensed that low extrasensory hum that signaled the activation of a magic furnace. Had the test been the fatal sort, she'd have died with the truth just within her grasp. Still, so far as tests went, this one was fairly simple. Her reflection mimicked her as she walked up to the barrier and put her hand on its smooth surface. She channeled her magic into the mirror wall. Her mind's eye perceived a crystalline lattice, an unbounded field with seemingly infinite connections and patterns, each one built on top of the other to create the powerful barrier. She searched for the slight flaw in the structure, the gap between its formation and construct's "base." With the magic furnace on, the barricade would merely reform each time the gap was "turned."

The voice rumbled in her mind. _Who are you?_

It was the question she had silently prayed she would not be asked. It was the one that would force her to give up her name, the one she had thought she would hold her entire life. There was only one answer her sister would find acceptable. _I am... Laya._

The flow of energy ceased. She twisted her hand in a motion similar to turning a key. The sound of glass shattering echoed as the barrier collapsed. The simple staircase up into the throne room was revealed, its trap door open. She gritted her teeth to stay within the familiar safety of _musubi_, but she could feel it fraying at the edges. She had to hurry.

She took the steps two at a time. The room itself was simple. No fancy art work, no statues, just the raised dais, the plain throne, and the red carpet. A room designed to be dominated by her sister.

Something on top of the throne caught her eye. She ignored her escorts as they emerged from the staircase and went straight toward it. It was a small plain box, covered in the dust of ages. She opened it easily. Within was the pendant that was supposed to hold her sister's final words, a simple locket that bore the red glyph of the Laya on a field of white.

The moment she picked it up, the glyph glowed before a familiar voice rang out for all to hear. "Sister, it is time for you to know the truth. Though Orakio and I have fought for many years, we finally realize that we have been deceived. An evil force from times beyond legend is using us to satisfy its desire for pain and suffering. We are joining forces to fight this ancient evil. In case we never return, I leave you the pendant; you will hear this when you are ready. Goodbye!"

Her limit had been reached; the world wavered. She dashed out of the throne room and fled upwards through the tower.


	2. Chapter 2

_Author's note: I usually don't have these, but this section specifically requires it. The song at the end is Yuki Kajiura's_ _Hepatica (KOS-MOS), which is written in the great composer's unique language. It's a rather mournful song that fits the circumstances, I feel. It's been slightly modified to fit. There is a cover version specifically for this section, sung by an original soprano, with accompanying background art. The song is available for listening on Youtube. Since Fan Fiction dot Net opposes links, add /watch?v=527tQE6qIzE after the website name._

Her eyes told her this was all a familiar sight. Snow lay heavily on the roofs of dozens of buildings below. Lights shone out of windows, sure to be home to family scenes, of fathers kissing their children after a hard day, of mothers feeding their families as they all gathered in the simple joy of being together.

_**You already know all their names by heart? Ah, my treasure, I'm so proud of you!**_

A sob choked her as she looked up, beyond the iconic towers of the Castle of Silence. Her heart felt like it needed just a feather of weight more to be crushed into pieces, never to be whole again.

_**Hmm?**__**Why was it built like this? Well, my treasure, even I have whims sometimes.**_

Snow-topped mountains arrogantly challenged the night for domination of the landscape. The sky ignored the insignificant taunt and serenely continued onward, a black velvet cloth for countless glittering gems that offered neither comfort nor warmth.

_**Night owns a special mystique, my treasure. Whether for magic or for love, night is the time for it.**_

Memories kept attacking her mind. A fresh river of tears escaped her eyes as she tried not to see anything, tried not to think of anything. A sound, half-whimper, half-wail, tried to claw itself out of her throat as the stream of thoughts continued to march through her mind.

Ladali, mother of the Laya Lalita, was recognized as the avatar of the Great Goddess for accomplishing a miracle. When Ladali died giving birth to Lalita, her people, the Espers who followed Lutz, had accepted that the divine energy had passed from Ladali to her daughter. From mother to daughter, from sister to sister, the manifestation of divinity followed the female line and connected them to the greater universe.

Each girl-child was given two names at birth. The first was the public name, the one by which she was known by others. The second was the true name, the secret name that protected all of their secrets. Every time a Laya died, she returned to her true name and her successor took her place. Each heiress abandoned her true name and assumed the burden until their own demise. It was an orderly, eternal procession, symbolized by the _tikal_, the blood red gem that only the Laya and her heiress wore, and the mystic bow that Lutz himself had long ago given them.

_**Sahana, you know full well that only the Laya is supposed to know your true name. I will forgive you for telling Alair, as I have impressed upon her the importance of her silence, but I will punish you severely the next time you break this trust. Am I understood?**_

She gasped for air as desperately tried to breathe through her sobs. Her father, Latis Theran, had died while she was in the womb. Her mother, Amika, had died giving birth. Her twin, never named, had been the cause of death and joined their mother in the grave. She had only had her big sister, who had given her all the love and safety in the world.

Laya had been everything to her. Laya had raised her, loved her as mother and sister, and taught her everything she knew. She had aspired to _be _her big sister, with her prodigious mastery of magic, her gift for learning almost at a glance. Her big sister had been her ideal, but no matter how hard she tried, it was simply impossible to equal Laya. Even without her gifts, Laya's will had been unmatchable; her diminutive big sister had nearly broken the massive Lune in half more than once because the brute had hurt Sahana's feelings.

Except now _she _was Laya. There was no one to call her "my treasure," no one to protect her, to care for her, to teach her, to love her. There was no one to brush her long hair, to encourage her dreams or dispel her fears, to make her feel cherished and unique. There was not even Sahana. There was just an incredibly poor substitute for what a Laya should be. She was just an imitation, a knock off of a truly great woman.

_**Please, my treasure, won't you sing for me?**_

Laya had always enjoyed hearing her sing. Her voice had the sole force able to soothe her sister's troubled spirit. Only she had ever had the power to console the pain brought by visions of the future. Her songs were the only thing that belonged to her alone and were no part of the Laya's burden.

She touched the pendant around her neck. If only for a little while, there would be no Laya. Sahana would sing for Kalika. Blinded by tears, she reached out for the rail and pulled herself to her feet. There was a song of mourning her sister had taught her, in a language whose words they did not understand, that had been ancient when Lutz himself had been born...

"_Morche_ _ta...mi iya...mitanu atore.._."

_**Sis-sis, sis-sis, it hurts, it hurts, waaaaaaaah, wahhhhhh!**_

_**My treasure?**__**Oh, no, what did you to yourself? You're bleeding!**_

_**The brat has nurses to take care of her. There's other-**_

_**Lune, if you ever call my treasure a brat again, I will rip that foul tongue out of your mouth. Do you understand?**_

_**She's just-**_

_**Do you **_**understand**_**,**__**armsman?**_

_**...I understand. I beg pardon, Laya.**_

_**You are pardoned. Now get out of my sight. Sweetheart? Oh, my treasure, I know it hurts, but look at me, alright? That's it, no more tears. I'm going to teach you how to heal something like this, alright? Let's make it our first spell together. Now, focus, just like you do in archery. Yes, just like that. Feel outward, feel the web of magic...yes, very good. Now, put your hands over your knee and... Medice!**_

"_Iiseta_ _ti ita... menseri amore_..."

_**My treasure, what would you like to be when you're all grown up?**_

_**Umm, I want be a princess, with a handsome prince who will love me and protect me like you do, and with my own babies so I can love them like you love me!**_

_**Oh, sweetheart...**_

_**Sis-sis, do you know any magic so I can have that when I grow up?**_

_**I'm afraid not. Our mother taught me the blessings when I was a girl. Would you like me to bless you, my treasure?**_

_**Hmm, please, sis-sis?**_

_**To please us may the suitor come, seeking this maid and bringing us good fortune. May her suitor be a king who makes her happy. May she bear healthy children, chief lady of the household, blessed beside her consort. May this maid be loved by her lord and prize his affection. May the Great Goddess lead and bring to thee the husband whom thy heart desires. May this be thy gift to her, O Goddess!**_

"_Idia_ _dieta...sibiya tore... imense idito adio_..."

_**Sis, is this spell just so I can learn how to break Techniques and magic? It doesn't really do anything. Even when it hits me, I just feel a little itchy.**_

_**What have I told you about appearances, Sahana?**_

_**Appearances are deceptive. One can only trust the mind's eye to see truly.**_

_**Exactly.**__**It's why we use **_**musubi**_**. This spell is my strongest, without doubt. Learn it and teach it, as it clears the way through the darkness.**_

_**Yes, master.**_

_**Don't start with that again!**_

_**Yes, master!**_

_**Oh, come here!**_

_**Heeheeheeheehee...stop...hahahahahaha...tickling...heeheehee...me!**_

_**Only if you stop calling me master!**_

"_Acorteha_ _adio detta... imense ni... adito dita... _Kalika..."

_**Sis, why do you always call me your treasure?**_

_**Why? It's because you **_**are **_**my treasure. I love you, Sahana. There is no one I love more. I'll gladly take all the pain and suffering in this universe onto my soul if it means you'll be happy for just a moment. If someone tries to hurt you, I'll kill them where they stand. If the world turned against you, I would crush the world underfoot for you. To protect you, I'd challenge the Great Goddess herself. If your life requires my death, I'll happily die. All this and more I would do for you because I cherish you above everyone else.**_

"_Imiadetta... sibiya tore... imense idito adio_..."

_**Sis?**__**S-sis?**__**W-why are you crying?**_

_**Oh, my treasure, my treasure...**_

_**S-sis?**__**What's wrong? What were those explosions? Why did the castle shake? Sis...?**_

_**No matter what happens, I won't let anyone or anything hurt you. Not even death will be enough to stop me from protecting you!**_

"_Abortea... adio detta... imense ni... adito dita_... Kalika..."

_**Why, Laya?**_**!**_**Why?**_**!**

_**They've found us! I can hold them off with my sword, but not for long, not alone. Make it quick, Laya.**_

_**There's no time to explain, Sahana. Promise me you'll always remember: you're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. Live happily ever after, my treasure. I love you.**_

"Kalika..."

Something sounded behind her. Startled, she whirled toward the doorway. Nial was there, his face entranced. His expression quickly changed to that "uncomfortable male confronted with crying female" look men got. Before she could don her sister's mask and hide, he opened his arms, a mute offer of comfort. For just a moment, her vision blurred and she remembered how Laya had done the same for her so many times. She couldn't help it; she walked up to him and buried her face in his warm chest as fresh tears poured out of her eyes. She whispered, "Kalika..."


	3. Chapter 3

"...seventy-three...seventy-four...seventy-five... do you really intend to go all the way to two hundred?"

"Yes. I'm still missing the 'endurance' part of accuracy, penetration, and endurance."

"What does that mean?"

Laya looked at Nial out of the corner of her eyes. She deliberately raised her bow above her head even as she made the world become one. "Archery focuses on accuracy, penetration, and endurance. Accuracy is how well one can hit the target, penetration is the power to pierce the target, and endurance is how long one can maintain accuracy and penetration."

As she brought her weapon down, she pushed against the bow and simultaneously drew on the string. Her self and the target were united. The arrow was slightly below her cheekbone as she drew the string back to its full draw. The arrow, her self, released, and time stopped. She knew she had hit the target; the past and the future were joined at the same point.

The arrow hit the circular target with a thump, an unnecessary confirmation of what she had already known would happen. They were on Mystoke's archery range, away from the Castle of Silence. The range was fairly typical: a long courtyard enclosed by high wooden walls, its grass covered by fresh snow.

There was no one here on this freezing cold day apart from herself and Nial. As Laya had been born in an even harsher climate than Frigidia's and had spent her entire life in this world of ice, she was accustomed to the chill. Landen's prince, however, was stomping back and forth to stay warm. He had stubbornly refused every time she had suggested he retreat to the warmth of the inn while she practiced, so in the end, she had told him to stand there and count.

She wasn't sure what she thought about this descendant of Orakio. It bothered her that in the long journey from Aridia to Mystoke, he had never smiled. On the other hand, he had been kind while she grieved for her sister. He had not offered trite words of consolation nor had he attempted to deny her pain. He had simply held her while she mourned.

"You probably need to work on the accuracy part, too. You haven't hit the center of the target at all."

The slightest of frowns formed on her face before she erased the expression. She was Laya. She should elegantly ignore his comment and let her actions prove how wrong he was, just like her sister would have, but...

"My accuracy is perfect. Every arrow has gone exactly where I wanted it to go."

If her tone was a little huffy, it was his fault. His skeptical expression contributed to her irritation as she drew an arrow and set it without the ritual preparation. "But you haven't hit the center once! How is that—"

The thump of an arrow hitting dead center interrupted him. Laya silently glared at him, daring him to comment. His breath caught before he cast his eyes downward; she let out a sigh. White vapor formed in front of her. "I wasn't aiming for the center. There are only twenty-five arrows left, so if you look at the shape the arrows make, you should recognize what I was doing."

Nial looked down the range at the target. Laya watched his shoulders tense when realization finally hit him. "You were drawing Laya's sigil... with _arrows_?"

She nodded once before she returned her attention to the target one hundred meters away. Arrows with their red fletchings outlined the Laya's glyph, for the most part. She only needed to complete the two lower curves and she would finish her first hundred arrows with her sister's bow.

_No...it's my bow now._

Laya's Bow was unlike any other. It was an ancient recurve bow made from an unknown material that time itself seemed to have passed by. The weapon had been brought by Ladali and shone as pure a white as the day it was created. She had seen her sister use the bow to parry physical attacks without it getting so much as a scratch, but no Laya knew what mystic secrets the weapon contained.

"But..._how_...?"

Nial was stunned. People always were when she did things like this. "My sister once said that it takes ten thousand hours of dedicated, escalated practice to master a skill. Four hours a day every day means it takes about seven years to master something."

Laya looked down at her bow. "When your master is Laya, and your ideal is your elder sister, you throw yourself into that practice. You spend four hours a day practicing archery, and then four hours practicing magic, and then four hours memorizing lore. You set your goals even higher than the tremendous ones your master has set for you. Even though it was impossible, and I _knew _it was impossible, I did all that to try to reach up to my ideal."

_Why did I say all that?_

"Your ideal?" Nial's voice betrayed his curiosity. "Your sister is your ideal?"

She looked at him directly. "Of course. My sister was the sort of prodigy born only once every thousand years. She could do anything, and even though I can't, she still loved me unconditionally."

Laya's throat tightened a bit as she thought of her sister, but she managed to restrain her tears. Fortunately, Nial's eyes were still focused on the target she had filled with her arrows. Whether he intended it or not, it made her like him more. From her cradle, she had received compliments about how beautiful she was. A man who did not engage in counterfeit flattery to win her favor was a good person.

"Your ideal is a goddess...I guess that's just the difference of what a demigoddess aspires to and what a mortal can aspire to..."

_What a mortal can aspire to...?_ "What is your ideal?"

Nial closed his eyes. "Chivalry, integrity, dedication, and always doing the right thing, these are the essentials of being a true knight. That's my ideal."

"Really? Interesting. You're that type of guy," she murmured softly as she launched another arrow into the target.

"Did you say something?"

"I wonder," she replied calmly as another arrow flew across the range and into the target.

"That's ambiguous," Nial said very dryly.

"Perhaps," Laya said as she ostentatiously stopped her practice to inspect her bow and once again look at Nial obliquely. "You stopped counting."

"Ah, right. Um, seventy-six and seventy-seven."

"You forgot the arrow I launched when you doubted me."

Nial looked down the range at the single arrow in the dead center of the target. "You're absolutely right. Sorry. Seventy-eight."

Laya accepted the apology, both for his forgetfulness and his doubting the skill her sister had trained.

_Sister, it is time for you to know the truth. Though Orakio and I have fought for many years, we finally realize that we have been deceived... _

"Is it alright if I travel with you a little while longer? I have a lot of things to think about."

Another arrow flew from her bow before Nial could answer. As Laya watched it traverse the distance, she suddenly noticed the tiny flashes of light that glittered in the air. While she had been practicing, a swarm of crystals had formed in the air.

"Diamond dust!" Snow crunched underfoot as she ran forward in delight. Tiny diamonds flashed as the air currents made the motes dance. A festival of wind and light enveloped her. No matter how quickly she spun to catch the evanescent gems, new glimmers replaced the old as nature created a winter wonderland. While she played in the diamond dust, Laya saw something unexpected.

_He really has a very nice smile._


End file.
